Stories and happenings in the life of a flight attendant written after my book.
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All photos by Penguin Scott unless noted.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Adventures in Flight: Crew Rest

Finally, the tie is
off, pockets are emptied, and my feet are happy not to bound in shoes
walking the aisles. The first service is complete and the plane is at
altitude en route to a far away destination. It's time for a crew
rest.

On long-haul
flights, once the initial service is complete, it's time for crew
breaks. Crew breaks are sacred. Services are seemingly done quickly
mainly to allow maximum time for crew break; that's what many senior
flight attendants would have you to believe. When I get juniored into
a position I'm not very familiar with, such as first class galley, I
can usually get out of it by saying, “OK, I don't really know this
position, so I may be a bit slow and the breaks may be shorter...”
Someone always steps up and takes the position from me before I can
complete the sentence. Don't mess with crew rest!

Depending on the
length of flight and how many breaks there are (two or three), crew
can look forward to anywhere from an hour to more than 3, out of view
from passengers for a rest. Each plane has a different crew rest set
up. The best is the 777 aircraft with the crew rest bunks in the
belly of the plane. Situated in the center of the plane, one can
enjoy lying flat with limited movement felt in flight. While the crew
bunks in the 747 are comfortable, they are located at the tail of the
aircraft, above the passenger area, and as you may know, the tail
experiences more movement as it gets buffeted by the winds in flight.
The least bit of turbulence is exaggerated in these bunks. They do
have seat belts, and I have feared actually falling out of an upper
bunk during turbulence. Shake, rattle and roll!

View down below

The worst crew rest
is located in the passenger cabin, separated only by a thick curtain.
The seats don't lie flat and noise is hardly muffled from the riff
raff just outside the curtain. Such is the case on the 767, which I
fly most on my trips to South America and the 777 that Mother Airline
uses for flights to Hawaii, which don't have the bunks in the belly
of the plane.

It's nice to get
settled in, turn the air on full-blast because I'm still overheated
from the service, just start falling asleep, and then the infant that
is always boarded next to us starts to cry. Well, maybe nice isn't
the word. Or the passenger behind us decides to open their shade
every 5 minutes and the bright light in the dark cabin creeps through
the cracks between the curtain and the cabin wall like a tiny sun has
formed just behind my head. (I think I could actually hear the light,
it was so intense.) Or a nearby passenger has an empty water bottle
at their feet and every 10 minutes their foot finds it and makes a
crackly-plastic bottle sound that in my sleepy state sounds as if it
is right over my head.

When I first started
flying international trips out of San Francisco in the early 2000s, I
watched what the others did and would do the same thing- ear plugs in
the ears, eye mask, strip down to the basic uniform and dive under a
blanket with 2 pillows. I never could sleep. Maybe it was the thrill
of going to a new foreign destination, which back then, was quite
rare for me and my insignificant seniority. Or maybe it's as I
learned later on, that I simply can't sleep with earplugs in my ears
and an eye mask digging into my head. I don't sleep like that at
home, why would I think I could sleep like that in a crew rest bunk
shaking like a hula dancer at 35,000 feet?

Night time departure

These days, I feel
much more like a pro when it comes to crew rest. I prefer the first
break, because it's hard coming off of break and going right into the
arrival service. With first break, I can get my rest and then get up,
have my crew meal (also sacred) and not be a sleepy-head when the
second service begins. I also don't wake up very gracefully.

There is one bunk on
the 747 known for being colder than the others; I prefer this one. I
prefer to be next to the window when we must rest in the cabin behind
the curtain; people are always walking past the curtain and bumping
into me.

What's fun and
entertaining is how passengers always try to move into the empty crew
rest seats. I recently encountered a man quite proud of having
acquired one on a full flight, leaving his center seat for a crew
seat. I stopped by, said hello, and asked where his seat was. He
stated this was his seat. I said that it couldn't be, because this
was a crew rest seat and asked again where his seat was, knowing full
well... He was quite determined and didn't seem to understand, so I
asked, “Are a crew member? Are you working this flight?” He
looked at me, the gleam in his eyes obviously dimming, “No.”
“Then, I'm sorry, but you'll have to return to your seat, crammed
in between two very large men on a 10 hour flight. These seats are
reserved for working crew.” Inside voice was asking me if I enjoyed
crushing human spirits.

Crew rest is sacred,
so if you happen to be on a plane seated next to the crew break area,
please be considerate, quiet, keep your window shades closed, your
baby in silent mode, and for the love of the gods, do not disturb!